Okay, you forced me into it!
This one is called “I Remember Mama”, made in loving memory of my mom and her flower gardens, but the rest of the world knows it as “The Albatross” because of how long it took me to make. It’s a Broderie Perse quilt and throughout the 4 years of its construction it was never touched by a sewing machine, not even to seam the big panels together or bind it. It’s black polished cotton, and the motifs are appliquéd in a tiny buttonhole stitch, each stitch touching the stitch next to it with black silk thread so the flowers appear to float. In fact, the stitches are so close together that they defeated me in a major quilt show. I’d entered it in the ‘Hand appliquéd, hand quilted’ category. I received nothing but the highest praise for the hand quilting and binding, but the judging critique also said “This quilter needs more instruction and practice with her machine appliqué.” Really? So here ya go….the quilt I’m proudest of:
This quilt is huge. That’s a little bit of me standing next to it.
It’s so big I couldn’t get it all to fit in the photo and the bower over the pillows doesn’t show.
This was the only angle to get it all.
Detail of the hand stitching.
Edited to add: Funny thing about this quilt. I thought it was done. I had the wreath of Ma’s favorite flowers in the center and the smaller sprays along the corners and on the sides. A year after it was done - and after it had been shown in Fon’s and Porter’s ‘Sew Many Quilts’ magazine - I ran across the fabric with the poinsettias and doves, and I knew I had to add them since we buried my beloved mother on Christmas Eve. So there I was, spending another 3 months holding this “finished”behemoth on my lap, carefully repeating the same appliqué process to put the new motifs in without sewing through the batting and backing and without messing up the quilt pattern on the back. That’s is NOT a process I care to repeat!
